Hardcore Troubadour Rocks, Reflects in Burlington
By Nick Johnsonetown host Nick Forster welcomed 2-time Grammy Award winner Steve Earle to the Flynn Theater in Burlington, VT among enthusiastic cheers, which we had to repeat for the recording of the radio show. Earle, long dubbed the Hardcore Troubadour, accepted the double outpouring of applause and coolly reminded everyone that he is a 3-time Grammy Award winner.
Earle’s third Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk/Americana Album came for his most recent effort entitled Townes, a tribute to Earle’s late friend and mentor, Townes Van Zandt. Earle, whose first child is Townes’ namesake, said of his friend, “He would shoot himself in the foot whenever success became too real a possibility.” Earle, evidenced as much by his work as a songwriter for acts like Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Joan Baez and Emmylou Harris, as by his distinguished solo career, has no such problem. I guess you could count the years of heroin addiction and the six failed marriages as shooting yourself in the foot, but who doesn’t like a story of recovery and redemption?
As quick as Earle was to point out the number of trophies on his mantle, he was quicker still to express his political views. Before breaking into ‘Pancho and Lefty’ Earle was, with little or no effort on Forster’s part, chided into talk of the oil spill soiling the Gulf. He promised to be brief and it was clear that he could, if he wanted to, go on for hours. “If you believe in God or not, this is a sign from somebody that maybe [oil] is supposed to stay in the ground and we’re supposed to find energy somewhere else.” Not as ‘hardcore’ as I was expecting, but three cheers for brevity and on to the music.
There’s no doubting Earle’s prowess as a songwriter and musician. There’s also the matter of his stage presence, which showcased his sharp mind, quick wit and compassionate nature. I was just left wondering what Earle could do with Janis Joplin’s gritty delivery and Tim Buckley’s elephantine lung capacity. As it was, his voice was closer to wet gravel than the dry dusty ferocity that would really have driven his convictions and lyricism home (he comes closest to it on ‘Where I Lead Me’ from Townes, if you want to check it out). Can’t win them all, I guess. Have a cigarette, Steve?
While his vocals left me wanting, his appearance didn’t. Earle was every inch the battle-worn country western intellectual badass: from the plaid cowboy shirt replete with alabaster buttons to the tight, faded blue jeans, from his heavily salted beard and lank balding hair to his wire-frame glasses and piercing, will-stand-no-bullshit eyes. You can almost see him returning to his hometown of Shertz, Texas, where he hadn’t been since he capitulated to his second attempt at the ninth grade, finding that only the police recognized him.
Etown has made a niche honoring musicians such as Earle, but also gives due to those in our communities who make a big difference without all the face time of a Grammy-winning act. On this particular night, Woody Tasch, founder of Slow Money, a growing network of investors ready to make the shift to small food enterprises and local food systems, and Will Raap, founder of Burlington’s Gardner’s Supply Company and the Intervale Center, got some much deserved attention, accolades, and exposure. Tasch and Raap represent the efforts of individuals to make a difference in their and our communities that acknowledges the realities and challenges of the 21st century. etown, too, should take a bow for bringing the work of these men, and everyone involved with their projects, to my, and hopefully many others’, attention.
With the interviews finished, the e-chievment award in Raap’s hands, and everyone in the audience feeling better about the world than they had an hour ago, we got back to the music with country singer-songwriter, new mother, and wife of Steve Earle, Allison Moorer. “She’s got a homespun disposition/just as gentle as you please/arms like two rattle snakes/legs like a willow in the breeze.” These lyrics from Towne's "Brand New Companion" seem to describe the woman who finally tamed the Hardcore Troubadour. Moorer didn’t disappoint. When asked about the deep emotional and intellectual nature of her brand of country music, Moorer responded, a touch reproachful in her smooth southern drawl, “Country doesn’t mean stupid.”
The sentiment resonated loudly with the Burlington crowd. Perhaps no stronger than with Addison County native and show stealer, Anais Mitchell. A friend and understudy of Ani DiFranco, Mitchell shared the spotlight with her forebears and, by virtue of her innocence, sincerity, and quirky unbottled energy, still managed to commanded the stage. Mitchell’s voice shares the timbre and power of early Joanna Newsom, but skips the childlike warble and her songwriting showcases moments of surprising clarity, “Go ahead and lay the blame/Talk of virtue, talk of sin/Wouldn’t you have done the same?/In her shoes, in her skin/You can have your principles/When you’ve got a bellyful”. As Moorer astutely, if dourly, put it, “I don’t go see music to be entertained. I go to feel something.” Those gathered at the Flynn Theater were lucky enough to experience both.
At the conclusion of the evening, Moorer, with the same sharp-eyed intensity that radiated out from behind the thicket of mic stands earlier in the night, came to bear on husband, Earle, “Did you lose the baby?” Earle, with the easy reassurance of someone who’s done and seen it all (some things six times), replied, “Somebody’s got him. I’ve done this before.”
Earle’s words to his wife stuck with me as I left the Flynn Theater. Here was a man who, defying the odds set against him by his own self-destructive lifestyle, was well into his fifties. He may have left behind many of the antics which got him labeled ‘hardcore’ in the first place, but has accumulated, and continues to share, his unique wisdom with the rest of us.
Labels: Allison Moorer, Anais Mitchell, etown broadcast, Flynn Theater, Steve Earle, Townes Van Zandt
posted by nthWORD at
8:28 AM
1 Comments:
The lyrics are from a Townes song - "Brand New COmpanion" - not one of Steve's.
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